Another Finish

Carol here ~

During this past weekend I loaded my Dogwood Lane quilt onto Lena Longarm and got it quilted. This time I used the digitized pattern DRAGONFLY DANCE from My Creative Stitches.

I’m happy with how it stitched out.

Dan's Ramblings

Dan here ~

Good Morning, spring continues to slowly encompass us. Thankfully, there seem to be more days of warmth than the cold days of winter. Granted the cold is not behind us, but the warmer days bring hope.

Walking continues, last Thursday brought my total to just over 600 miles for 2021.

I continue to see when it will seem to be just too time consuming as my days sometimes appear to be totally taken up by my walks.

The squirrels appeared to be confused the other day when the town graded the road. I saw one look at me with arms raised and appeared to be asking where did all my nuts go? But it was no time before they were back harvesting the bounty of acorns from the road.

It's Melting!

Carol here ~

I see beach! The snow has started melting off the beach. At this point, it looks like there is quite a bit of beach under that snow. It will change though with the ice melt and the spring rains. In a normal spring the water is right up to our wall. We shall see…

Most all of the snow right around the house is gone except for a small section on the front patio. 

Squirrely

Dan here ~

Good Morning, the last couple of days have been beautiful ~ warm but not incredibly windy. Really nice walking except that I have no idea what to wear. It’s starts off chilly then by the time I finish I wish I had my shorts on.

For a while as I have traveled on my walk back and forth on what I call the camp road (it’s really Old County Rd.) I have been noticing small round holes in the gravel road bed. 

At first I thought someone was walking with ski poles or a walking stick of some sort. I quickly figured out that was not the case. The holes are the product of the endeavors of the gray squirrels.

Happy Spring!

Carol here ~

What a glorious spring day yesterday! Not a cloud in the sky, temps around 60 degrees.

I took advantage of the warm day with no wind to sit outside, get some much needed Vitamin D, watch the ice melt and stitch the binding down on Rona 14.

Rona 14

Dan here ~

Rona 14 top is complete. I think I told you I was working on Rona 15 but we figured out it is really Rona 14.  Carol is already loading it on Lena.

I told you a little bit about how this one came about and if you have been following along I may be repeating a little. While looking through a bin at the storage unit I found the beginnings of a quilt that someone had started. When I showed the blocks to Carol, she said that our youngest daughter, Erin, had started it for a boyfriend that did not last as long as the construction process. She had completed a large stack of 9-Patch blocks and cut matching sized squares to go with them. 

I set out to design around what she had started and see if I could find something to liven it up a bit. I found a couple of decent sized pieces of the red and knew that it would frame the 9-patch blocks nicely. I had always loved that red fabric and I actually think I stashed those chunks in the bin for a later project. This one I guess.

This and That

Carol here ~

Top of the mornin to ye!

A couple of weeks ago I popped a lower rib on my left side. A couple visits to the chiropractor, the ice pack and lots of babying it and it was finally feeling better. I even was able to sleep on that side for a couple of nights.

Then, Monday morning my whole lower back went out. I don’t even have a good story for it ~ I wasn’t shoveling, or stacking wood or lifting anything heavy. I was putting my sock on.

How ridiculous.

I was standing on my right leg putting my sock on my left foot and when I went to pull it up ~ WHAM! There goes my back. I was stuck half up and half down. I was at the end of the bed so managed to lay my top half on the bed while trying not to pass out ~ yes, I was seeing stars. IT. HURT. SO. BAD. I finally managed to get my whole body on the bed and slowly get myself straightened out. I then got myself to the recliner with the ice pack and sat there until I could get to the chiropractor. Thankfully, he got me an appointment right away.

Dan's Ramblings

Dan here ~

The temperature has plummeted. I kind of expected it to, the 50 degrees of Thursday and Friday was much to good to last. Yesterday was cold and very windy, today is not supposed to get out of the teens and stay very windy.

Will be very cold walking today. Carol stated she will get her steps walking around inside the house. My walk today will be brought about by a decision to walk, not a desire to get out for fresh air. Not raining, no bugs, guess I’ll survive.

Quilting Frenzy

Carol here ~

Lena and I have been on a quilting frenzy! We finished up Rona 11

and then moved on to Rona 14. We quilted Rona 14 with the digitized pattern called ABACUS from Urban Elementz.

Rona 13

Dan here ~

Good Morning, a little warmer weather means that a little melting is going on. The road I walk on is apt to be frozen if I walk real early (seldom happens) or a combination of mud, ice and puddles later in the day. Care is necessary when a vehicle is encountered or unpleasantness can be encountered.

Rona 13 is complete as far as the top is concerned. 

Pearls and Paisley

Carol here ~

Happy Monday!

The days are getting longer and the sun is getting warmer! Even though winter is still hanging on you can definitely feel the difference in the air, especially if the sun is shining. Looks like we are to have some balmy temps coming up this week ~ which means mud walking and puddle jumping will be happening! Well, probably more puddle dodging than jumping for this old girl.

I’m seeing a lot of bare ground on the banking on the side the pond where the sun shines all afternoon.

Blowin' In The Wind

Dan here ~

This has been a cold week. There were days last week that the camp road was muddy and special attention was needed when a vehicle went by or else you would get splashed as they drove past. The last several days have brought us back into the frigid cold of winter. Vehicles approaching make a racket as their tires crunch the ice in the road. 

Yesterday was Thursday which meant that another week of walking is in the books.  This is this week’s stats.

This week brought my total miles for the year to 451.3 miles. I have accumulated just over 100 miles “in the bank” or put another way, I am just over 100 miles ahead of schedule. This means that if I wanted to I could refrain from walking for a little over 2.5 weeks and still be on schedule. Not too shabby, sure takes up a lot of my day though. Guess I really have little else to do so I’ll keep plugging along, supposed to be good for you, isn’t it?

Martha's Quilt

Carol here ~

After we received Lena Longarm's part and installed it, I loaded one of Dan’s smaller tops (Rona 9) to make sure she was happy and wanted to work.

Everything went well. I used a basic Digitized Edge to Edge pattern from Urban Elementz called COOL BEANS. 

This pattern stitches out beautifully and quickly, and I love the name of it. I will probably use this same pattern on Rona 9’s twin, Rona 8.

Dan's Ramblings

Dan here ~

We had an eventful weekend. We walked, we sewed, Carol got Lena Longarm back up and running. Lena’s part came back, was told that it was fine, put it back where it belonged and wired it up and it worked as it should. Guess she just wanted a vacation. Well Lena girl, there is a list of tops waiting for you.

Still plugging along with Rona 13. Did this one kind of backwards. Usually the block is what is time consuming. With this quilt top, the top is basic, a framed 9-patch block.